Characterization of the production system and breeding practices of sheep producers in Tahtay Maychew District, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract. Melak A, Hailu A, Assefa A, Aseged T, Sinkie S, Tsion S. 2021. Characterization of the production system and breeding practices of sheep producers in Tahtay Maychew District, Northern Ethiopia. Intl J Trop Drylands 5: 5-11. Sheep rearing plays an important role in the livelihoods of rural people in Ethiopia, yet limited information is available regarding the management system of the sheep. The study was conducted in Tahtay Maychew district of the central zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to understand the sheep production system, the breeding practices, selection criteria, and sheep production constraints to identify sheep farming practices about future production strategies in the study area. A total of 70 households from 2 kebeles (lower administrative structure) were selected purposively based on sheep population and production potential and accessibility. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informants. An index was calculated to provide an overall ranking of the purpose of keeping sheep, culling rams and ewe, according to the formula: Index = ? of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3]. It is concluded that both female and male sheep are maintained mainly for income generation followed by breeding. A variable that was given a higher priority in selecting breeding males and females was body size. Disease, feed shortage, lack of grazing, and predators are the major constraints of sheep production mentioned in the study area. Therefore, addressing these constraints is important to design a successful genetic improvement scheme in the area for sheep.

Traditional sheep breeding practices under agroforestry system of Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…Selling and slaughtering of culled animals were the common culling strategy in the recent study. These two culling strategies were reported similarly for Setit Humera and Kafta Humera [ 24 ], Aba’ala [ 32 ] and Tahtay Maychew [ 16 ].…”

“…Collectively, in all study districts, farmers gave due attention for body confirmation (Index = 0.25), genotype (Index = 0.24) and lamb growth rate (Index = 0.19) when selecting breeding rams. Body size or body conformation was among the top priority criteria for breeding ram selection in west Gojam [ 30 ], Tahtay Maychew [ 16 ], central zone of Tigray [ 31 ], Aba’ala, [ 32 ], and North Shoa [ 33 ]. Likewise, in Tigray region, fast-growing ram lambs were preferred for breeding and ranked as a secondary criterion [ 29 ].…”

“…In the present study area, poor body condition (29.7%), mating difficulty (24.6%), and health problems (23.2%) were the top culling criteria for breeding ram. Poor body condition was also the first reason for culling breeding males in Tahtay Maychew [ 16 ] and Doyogena district [ 25 ]. Similar to the current finding, health problem was among the reasons to cull male sheep in Borana [ 35 ].…”

“…Using SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science) version 26, descriptive statics were generated for the majority of sheep breeding practices including sheep possession, mating systems, culling techniques, sheep breeding monitoring, and mean for castration and selection age. The following formula was adopted from [ 15 , 16 ] and applied to compute indices for breeding ewe and ram selection criteria for the first three rankings, utilizing the determined ranking proportion of smallholder farmers for each criterion from SPSS. Where w c is the rank weight associated with criteria c (w1 = 3, w2 = 2, w3 = 1), X nc is the proportion of smallholder farmers who ranked the c th criteria in the n th rank (n = 1 to 3 ranks).…”